Dude. I’ve spent more time reading your Olympics fashion analysis than I have watching the Olympics.

Denim is a fabric, and people do various things to it. And that’s OK.

I think pretty much everyone has understood for decades that the various denim treatments represent design concepts rather than actual wear and tear. Remember stone washing in the ’80s?

It’s pointless to judge people for what type of jeans they choose to buy, whether they have a distressed or super-dark-dyed new look. It’s all fashion. It’s all good.

However, I agree that the uniform sucks.

LOL. As if that weren’t enough, there is another dimension to this story, and that’s the minor controversy in the professional snowboarding community over the use of speed suits. Since you’re trying to go as fast as possible, the practical thing to do is to lessen wind resistance, and baggy outfits slow you down. Professional downhill skiiers use speed suits for this reason, but for some reason, conformity to the traditional gear is enforced by mocking and ostracizing snowboarders who dare to challenge the norm.

It’s obvious that the snowboarding community is deeply concerned about maintaining it’s carefully cultivated outsider image. A speed suit would signal the truth: snowboarding has been completely absorbed into the mainstream sporting establishment, but this fact must be suppressed because a big part of the sport’s appeal (and advertising and sponsorship dollars) depends on the appearance of nonconformity.

i dig those shitty uniforms.

who cares if the VP of C can’t write a brief. He’s a boarder- he isn’t supposed to!

The real head-scratcher is that that’s not even actually denim. It’s GORE-TEX done up to look like distressed denim. I don’t know that even Baudrillard came up with a word for what it is when you’re simulating simulacra.

Wouldn’t consumers buying phony-holed jeans actually *show* a demand for “authenticity” even if those jeans are the opposite of “authentic”? When choosing between different pairs of jeans, consumers are going for the ones that look worn-in, as if they had been working on a motorcycle or chopping wood or performing some other authentic-sounding activity.

Maybe customers who buy such things have little idea of what it means to be authentic (though, really, who can actually define authenticity?), but that doesn’t mean they don’t buy things purporting to have that quality.
Consumers who want to cultivate a self-image of authenticity are drawn to clothes that look the part. Even if you didn’t rip those jeans yourself, as far as everyone else is concerned, seeing is believing.

The difference is that consumers do demand authenticity, It’s just that they are not very good at judging it.

Excellent appraisal, RW. Best thing I’ve read all day.

I agree with everything you say here. But I still love these crazy uniforms!

Good critique. As I watched the team, I also had to wonder why someone doesn’t sidestep the entire skateboard look and simply wear gear that is about flexibility, aerodynamics, and cold weather comfort, and make an elevated “brand” statement that is about team and USA and cleverness, competency and leadership. And yes, I expect a speed suit might actually deliver better results, as well. Thanks.

Trying your hardest to look cool* = not cool. Wearing goofy golfing clothes to play (the somewhat) goofy sport of curling and looking as if you couldn’t care less = damn cool. God bless Norway.

*Not that these clothes (US snowboarders) actually are cool. Wearing uncool clothes and thinking you are cool = double uncoolness. Except perhaps in the southern hemisphere where everything is back-to-front. But not exactly.

Really? You picked this as the worst? Sure the jeans are lame, but I liked the plaid jackets.

These were WAY better than the blue pajamas with stars that Hannah Kearney wore when she won the gold in moguls.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2010/02/14/amd_olympics_skiing.jpg

The uniform looks stupid photographed by itself, but I have to say, it looked sharp on the US boarders when they were wearing them on the slope, especially compaired to everyone else’s uniforms. Partly that’s because the US uniforms were fitted better and tighter on the body; everyone else looked a bit Michelin Man-7. But the US uniforms also stood out because they were using a subdued color palette in contrast to the bright colors everyone else was wearing. I think dull colors look better against white snow than strong ones; the contrast gives me a headache.

I understand what you & everyone else is saying: it’s stupid to make something look like something it isn’t (in this case, brand-new Goretex to look like old denim). But the uniform should be considered in the context of snowboarding’s origins, which borrows a bit from skiing, but much more from skateboarding. So why can’t a snowboarding uniform stay within the skateboarding aesthetic? In fact, I’d argue that such a uniform would be more authentic. Snowboarding is still a very young sport, and its outfits should be allowed to evolve in their own direction, rather than mimic previous snow sports.

About the phoniness of designer jeans in general: You’re treating jeans solely as a practical item of clothing, but jeans haven’t been that for decades. They’re a fashion product. And what fashion designers do is to take an element and change or exaggerate it. Jeans designers have done the same thing with jeans features (wear patterns, rips, color fading) that, say, dress designers might do with a ruffle or brocade. The genius of American fashion has always been its ability to turn informal clothes into formal wear.

Yeah, the Burton exec’s comments are stupid, but really, when does any marketer ever say anything true about their product? Doesn’t everyone try to latch their product onto some ineffable and unconnected idea or feeling?

Umm, meant Michelin Man-y, not Man-7.

Fit, quality and an awareness of history and context trumps stupid ‘fashion’ anyday. Now that’s real style.

Ok, I am going to venture to guess that you have not ever been snowboarding before. Am I right? Or am I right? First off, the hood actually looks to me very well designed and functional. Skiers and snowboarders do wear a hood, even over their helmet, if there are high winds or it’s extremely cold. And while I agree that buying pre-faded jeans is extremely stupid, you have to admit these look pretty decent. I’ve seen other “denim” snow pants, and they look like plastic. But these look pretty authentic to the mass-produced jeans that lack authenticity. As a “unique” uniform, I would certainly say these suffice.

Prepare for confrontational mode!

To anyone who say the baggy clothing is less efficient than a speed suit a simple test; Beat Shaun White. The guy moves faster and higher than anyone else while wearing his baggy pants.

Either they make enough of a difference for someone to slap on the spandex and overtake the current champ or… they don’t.

To quote the philosopher Ric Flair – “To be The Man, you have to beat The Man”.

#13 must be a journalism major, compelled to edit blogs…so, it’s a typo…you got the message…who cares?

I have to agree the uniform feels forced, but I’ll take that over the 80’s throw-back neon that’s been paraded around Snowboard style for the last year. Primarily, you’re spot on about the need for a uniform though – if its all about individuality, why make your team wear a uniform?

I started snowboarding back in 87. So this is my 23rd season. I am still amazed how marketing experts just still don’t get it. Snowboarding or skateboarding are sports that cannot be controlled from outside. Nike tried to get into snowboarding four-five times and always failed miserably. Then they gave the initiative to snowboarders, true snowboarders and not just some twice-a-year kooks, who do it just because of Shaun White or whoever the hot rider of that day was. Even then, it still didn’t happen overnight. They had to ask permission, they were humble and understood before they acted. Now they get it. It took Nike some 15 years. So I cannot blame you guys for not understanding the outfit or snowboarding. Olympics and snowboarding have never been a good fit. IOC still doesn’t understand it after 12 years.

It’s alright for you to mock and diss this or any other outfit. It’s because you don’t get the middle finger it shoves to the faces of those stiff, bribed IOC guys who try to force all the sports in mold that they have created without asking a permission.

As a statement, it’s a pretty good one. For what comes to the actual outfit, I like it. The middle finger in it.

Here is a good read for those who are interested in snowboarding and olympics from the absolute biggest legend of the sport, Terje Haakonsen.

http://bit.ly/dbFRS (onboardmag)

rob,
although i think i agree with your rant here, from just causally watching the olympics… i liked these uniforms, and they felt kinda rebellious to me. but when digging in to your critique i also agree with you… strange. maybe sometimes things should just be accepted at face value, isnt that what fashion in its essence is about??

not STYLE, fashion.

This article was shared by a friend, so I’m a newbie to the site. This post seemed disproportionately angry, seemingly spurred by some perceived disingenuous motivations on the part of the people who chose the uniforms. I thought they were fun and really in keeping with the team’s spirit. I watched the women’s half-pipe event and saw a break in the usually overly-dignified and oh-so-serious-this-is-her-one-chance-at-greatness pall of the games. One girl revved herself up by listening to her ipod and singing really loud. Which was awesome.

So, yes, the paragraph you quoted was right. The uniforms weren’t bucking conservatism in general, as you proposed; instead, they were bucking the way-too-serious pitch of the Olympics. You also seem to have misread the paragraph again, because they said the individuality OF SNOWBOARDING. The uniforms were representative of the sport in America. So perhaps individuality was the wrong word; perhaps uniqueness of the sport would have been more appropriate.

In short, maybe this isn’t the best hill to die on against evil marketers and their ridiculous ways.

#15 – All snowboarding events are not halfpipe. Halfpipe is a FREESTYLE event. It’s the ‘figure-skating’ of snowboarding. Shaun White gets points, not an official time. He also gets points for appearance. He also has his very own exclusive NBC marketing deal. So he’s definitely a driver.
But that’s not all this sport is. The other two-thirds of the events are SPEED events. NO points for style, no judging. Timing devices. Running courses and gates. That’s what boardercross and alpine is.
Alternative counter-culture emo yadda yadda? Baloney. The original Burton team in Soda Springs in 1982 wore SPEEDSUITS. There WERE NO judged events.
Everybody’s confusing skateboarding with snowboarding. The snowboard mags perpetuate the confusion.